Lily Rose, false shepherds are wolves in sheep's clothing. It's a really sad thing but in many churches the enemy is the one behind the pulpit. And the one that is married to the man behind the pulpit. There are true Judas and Jezebels in the church itself. That is why you must align yourself with the right ministry. Lots of them sound good, lots of false shepherds make the people feel good about themselves, make the people think they are special, but it is a trap, they are there to tickle your ears.

There is a scripture that says to "shine your light before men, that they may see your good works and GLORIFY GOD." False shepherds rob God of His glory, and they trap the people, they come to kill, steal and destroy. They rob God of His people, they rob God of His glory. The false shepherds ARE the number one enemy, when someone is tied up into a cult. That's why I decided to pray for Gary and Marilyn Hargrave, they are the number one enemy of the people in the Walk. If they get saved, then God can do something with the church.

The bible says "my sheep will begat thousands and tens of thousands." It is the role of the sheep to begat sheep, it is the role of the shepherds to begat sheperds. If people sit in the pews for thirty years under the "covering" of some joker, then they are trapped, the leaders are keeping the people trapped in their own infancy.

Praying for your enemies frees YOU, it is for YOUR good. By praying for your enemy you often put hot coals upon their head, But those hot coals can save them, or they can destroy them, either way, it will free everyone if the leadership of that group actually live for Christ instead of themselves.

You know, about three years ago I was going to one church and decided to stop going there and starting attending another church a few miles away. I still see people from the church that I quit going to, and when I do, we talk and have a good time with one another. That is the difference in going to a church and belonging to a cult, with Walk people they have to go through the mumbo jumbo of "clearing" one another and not talking about what goes on, and often, they just won't talk to you any more. Big difference, and very refreshing to be free to attend different churches and not be hated on by anyone and be judged for it.

I'm glad to be free now, free to come and go as I please, and not answer to anybody for it. I even saw the pastor of that first church I am talking about, the one that I quit, in the grocery store, (he buys his own groceries like anybody else) and we talked a long time, very friendly. America is a beautiful country, a democracy, all of you Living Word folks should try it. It's right outside the doors of your church, you are like the bird with his cage door wide open, all you have to do is fly out.

I have been to several functions, like Christmas parties, funerals, different things, with people from different churches, people that once were members of a church together, but have moved on. They are all still friends, good friends for life, it's an atmosphere that is totally different from the way it was under the oppression of being on the "cutting edge" of the kingdom.

It's amazing, the thing that Gary Hargrave is trying to accomplish, the oneness in the churches, already exists. Now I see on the Living Word websites and on their facebook page that there are healings in the Walk, uh, that is a just now breakthru with them? What are they saying, people getting healed is just now being restored to the church? Where do they get all of this stuff?

I'm really enjoying your posts Apostle Dog. It's opening eyes to the common freedom most people in America enjoy. Shopping for churches that "rightly align" with ones changing spiritual and social needs is not taboo, but a freedom that should be taken advantage of. Amazing. God doesn't hate or black list "church hoppers."

On a second note: I have a hard time forgiving those who tried to kill me (spiritually). I don't think they have changed at all. They're not ignorant Romans carrying out a common crucifixion, but they're wolves who don't think twice about making a kill for their own benefit. My hat is off to lily rose. Her last post is fantastic.

On a third note: How do you classify Jesus' response, "Depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you." ------------ neither forgiveness nor corrective judgment but a declaration of staying ones course?

So here's the question of the week for you all:

When you were inside, did you ever consider that the Living Word might, just might, possibly be a cult? Did you have little nagging thoughts in the back of your mind? Feelings that it might be an unhealthy church.

I sure did. I remember when the Jonestown tragedy happened. I thought to myself: " Crap, now they are going to investigate us too."

But I chose to ignore those thoughts. We were taught to not doubt.

FCSLC, I really enjoy your posts as well, in fact, I enjoy all of you guys, I think we are having some pretty healthy conversations. You are right, church hopping is certainly no sin, I don't go around looking for a church with a pastor that agrees with me a hundred percent and tells me how anointed I am, I look for messages that challenge me and enlighten me, if they don't I go to the church on the next corner.

About the response of Jesus, He says that to the goats on the day of judgement. One thing I have learned since I left Living Word Fellowship, and since the Lord brought me to some realizations about myself, and led me to repent, is that Jesus is not judging anybody right now, He is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. If Jesus is not judging anybody, and if we are to be doing what we know that He is doing, then we don't need to be judging anybody either. Now, I don't mean that we can't make an intelligent decision about somebody, about what they are teaching, and if we see that they are wrong, then we can get away from them. We can also defend ourselves, all of that, but I don't think Living Word was right in all that judgement they dished out all over the place. I really never have run into any church with Christians in them that were that judgemental, I have heard of some, but I have not experienced them since I left the Walk.

I don't know if I have completly forgiven everybody, but when it comes up, I do repent for it. I have said a few things in this forum I think that I regret. I just try not to cross the line too far and get into shutting the door to the concept of forgiving if someone asked for forgiveness. I have prayed for the leaders of Living Word Fellowship more for the people in the fellowship than for them. And if they will repent, then I will be happy, if they don't,,,,oh well.

Paleface, I knew the Walk was cultish, in the people were worshiping a man, I knew that from the start, but I didn't really think that JRS was all into it at first. I knew for sure there was a serious flaw when JRS married Marilyn, and she started talking on the tapes, I knew for sure that if he would marry her he had no decernment. It all came together, anybody that would make sermons like "The Threat Within," and couldn't see that she was the threat within had the wool pulled over his eyes.

The constant focus on John Robert Stevens, that was obviously cultish, but you know, that was the one church that would wink on me getting high and committing adultery, that church did not even make an attempt to see that Romans 8 was about walking in the Spirit and NOT fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. To them, fulfilling the lusts of the flesh was NOT fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. I was as warped as they were, but I didn't care. I believed that churches were all corrupt and therefore this one church was not religious and that somehow in some warped way pleased God.

I woke up. But I knew it was a cult all along really. I just didn't care.

I heard a really good song tonight. I usually like Christian music very much, but this one is really good I think. Google: Youtube; December Radio find you waiting (with lyrics)

Paleface, I might be answering your question of the week more than once, this is the second time I am answering it, the first answer didn't show up. But yes, I knew the Walk was a cult, about the time of the divorce and the marriage to Marilyn, and really even before when all, and I mean ALL of the discussion in the church was John, John, John's spirit, how it rained every time John showed up at a church. That was the church of John, period.

That church was like many churches, they take one or two verses and run with them, they do not even read the whole paragraph from the pulpit, let alone a whole book of the bible at the time. There is no way that the interpretation of Roman's 8 that the Walk pushed, could leave out that sonship as they called it did not involve walking in the Spirit of God, without living in the flesh, and living in the flesh included getting drunk and switching wives and praying for your wife to die and running trips on people to get them to do what you want them to do, that is witchcraft and that is not walking in the Spirit of God, that is walking in the spirit of Satan.

Being saved means, in a big way, to be saved from one's own lustful, evil, greedy, power hungry nature. That don't happen by screaming at God to push some man (John) into higher levels of spirituality, or even into eternal life, and then we ride in on his coat tails. That is a fantasy, that did not happen, that was a false teaching.

I just liked to party, and I liked being important, and I liked the attention, I was a punk, that was not a true Christian. I can't speak for anybody else really.
Thank God I was given another chance. I should have been obliterated off the face of the Earth, but Christ decided to wake me up.

Apostle Dog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I heard a really good song tonight. I usually
> like Christian music very much, but this one is
> really good I think. Google: Youtube; December
> Radio find you waiting (with lyrics)


Correction, I usually DON'T like Christian music very much. I've gotta start editing these things before I send them. I should know from my experience in Living Word Fellowship, EDIT, EDIT, EDIT....